Indictment of our health-care system

Re: “Wait times for MRIs spike,” Aug. 15.

The analysis of the demand and necessity of MRIs by Colin Zak, Dr. Richard Walker and Jennifer Zwicker is contemptuous and arrogant of both patients and family physicians.

To dismiss the need of MRIs for “lower back pain” on a triage basis smacks of battlefield health care.

My wife, suffering unbearable pain several times a day and in bed at night crying in agony as a result of deteriorating lower vertebrae, can hardly be called “nonurgent.”

After my wife having X-rays and back injections, her physician ordered an urgent MRI in early June.

The result? A call advising her that her appointment was scheduled for Jan. 24. The second result? A visit to a private provider by fixed-income retirees to get a timely analysis at a cost of $630. And how long did it take for the appointment and analysis? Five days.

The analysis was “advanced degenerative disc disease with complex disc deterioration causing severe spinal narrowing with impingement of the nerve root.”

And how long until she receives appropriate attention from a specialist? We are less than hopeful. And so my wife continues to suffer constantly, but according to these experts, her health and life is to be considered of elective/non-urgent concern. May these unsympathetic and uncaring individuals be similarly afflicted.

Colin Jamieson, Calgary